A group of Mohawks from Kahnawake is preventing freight trains carrying oil or other dangerous materials from passing through the territory on a Canadian Pacific Railway line for 24 hours.

The protest is in solidarity with Indigenous groups protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline project in North Dakota.

The blockade began Thursday at midnight. Commuter trains that use the rail line are being allowed to pass.

A spokeswoman for the group, Kahionwinehshon Phillips, read a statement Thursday morning to a group of reporters gathered at a small encampment the group has been maintaining at the foot of the Mercier Bridge for the past few weeks.

"We as the Mohawk people have a duty to protect mother earth, and we will continue to defend our mother earth for the coming generations as our ancestors did," Phillips said.

A group of Mohawks from Kahnawake is preventing freight trains carrying oil or other dangerous materials from passing through the territory for 24 hours in solidarity with water protectors in North Dakota.

Nearly 200 people gathered early Tuesday morning to along Highway 132 to protest against the controversial pipeline, which would run through the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

"The United States have a treaty with the Sioux and they should not be forcing through a pipeline," said Kenneth Deer, secretary of the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake.

Students from Kahnawake Survival School joined a gathering on Highway 132 against the Dakota Access Pipeline

Later in the morning, about 150 students from Kahnawake Survival School, the local high school, blocked part of the highway for a few minutes in solidarity. Source

Protectors are concerned the pipeline will put drinking water on and off Indigenous land at risk.